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A hybrid is a lot like Pee Wee Herman, you either like em’ or you don’t. And what happens over the course of time with something that people either like or don’t like, is a lot of myths begin to circulate. Some are true, some aren’t, some are partially true, and some are just flat out ridiculous. Let’s look at a few of these up close:

There aren’t enough plug outlets in the world to make effective use of a hybrid-

MB- That is partially true, which is why most hybrids do not depend on an electric outlets only to function. This myth comes from the PHEV’s (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles), that are recommended to be plugged in every evening in order to have enough charge to get you through the day without using gas. The typical hybrid today has a combustion engine and regenerative braking that keep the battery cell fully charged, so in a sense the entire system is completely self serving (that is other than the necessary gas to keep its combustion portion functioning properly).

Hybrids are very dangerous when involved in an accident-

MB- To really get at the root of this myth, we have to understand what this is really saying. Oftentimes this statement is referring to the fact that a hybrid is even more dangerous than a standard vehicle in a collision. This is just not true. Any combustion engine of course has the danger of fire if sparks are present and gas is leaking. The fear is beyond this hybrids offer a great chance of a high voltage shock if a wire has been severed. The actual truth is hybrids have a built in fail safe mechanism than shorts the entire system in the event of a main wire becoming breached. They can be dangerous, but not really anymore dangerous than any other vehicle.

Replacing a hybrid battery is incredibly costly-

MB- This comment is predominantly hearsay, as there has not as of yet been a hybrid battery that has officially ran out of warranty. They currently are warranted for 8 to 10 years and/or 80,000 to 150,000 miles. So up until now, consumers have been getting their batteries at zero cost should anything go wrong. This myth comes from the knowledge that nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) is not an inexpensive technology by any means. But, the good news is, with the advancement of battery technology, we are looking at future versions that will be able to last for up to 20 years of continual service and will cost well below $2,000 to replace. $2,000 over the course of 8 to 10 years of service should not be considered “incredibly costly” by anyones standards.

(to be continued…)